Platforms are green

Did anyone else notice how radically green Apple’s Macworld announcements were? Steve Jobs didn’t play up the environmental angle of his iPhone, Apple TV, and iPod Touch upgrades, but the vision he presented is far more radical than just a super-skinny, brominated-flame-retardant-free notebook.

With “Apple TV 2,” Jobs is turning the CE world on its head by releasing a major new product—without any hardware. Not only does it hasten the digital delivery of movies and TV shows (bye-bye plastic disks and cardboard boxes) but it makes Jobs’ major CE product announcements software, not steel.

Nobody needs to buy a new iPod touch to get e-mail. No Apple TVs will be thrown away by people who want movie rentals. And Jobs is fulfilling his promise to iPhone owners to keep their devices exciting and fresh; first, by trickling out new features, and soon by opening up the floodgates to third-party applications.

The best kind of electronics to buy are products that are going to last you a long time, that you don’t have to worry about recycling or throwing away. Raising the length of time between new hardware purchases is one of the greenest things the electronics industry can do.

Watch for more green-with-a-capital-‘P’ news here in the not too distant future…